Sunshine State News ran a poll on the U.S. Senate race last week that had Republican candidate Marco Rubio leading both opponents -- Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation, and Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek -- by double digits.

Republican efforts to hammer Democratic candidates for state office in Florida on national issues continued on Wednesday when Sen. John Thrasher of Jacksonville, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, attacked Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, for backing new federal health-care laws supported by President Barack Obama. Thrasher also criticized Gelber for not supporting a legal challenge launched by Attorney General Bill McCollum against the new federal measures.

Tea party activists hailed the defeat of two establishment Republicans up North.

Christine O'Donnell defeated nine-term Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican nomination for Joe Biden's Senate seat in Delaware. And Carl Paladino beat former Rep. Rick Lazio for the GOP nomination for New York governor.

Both O'Donnell and Paladino ran insurgent campaigns against well-known Republicans -- and their outsider, come-from-behind tactics heartened Florida TEA Party chairman Fred O'Neal.

While U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a vice-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, continues to increase her national profile -- holding a media event on Tuesday with DNC chairman and former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to attack Republicans for considering another shutdown of the federal government -- her Republican opponent continues to pound her for supporting new federal health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama.